The present invention concerns a clothes washing machine having a foldable cover assembly.
Generally, a washing machine is automatically controlled by a microcomputer programmed to wash and rinse clothes, to discharge water, and to extract water from the soaked clothes. Referring to FIG. 6, such a washing machine comprises a water reservoir (not shown) fixedly mounted in a housing 10 for storing a given amount of washing water, a washing basket 12 mounted in the water reservoir with a pulsator 11, and a drive means (not shown) for supplying a drive power required for washing operation.
The housing 10 has at the top a cover frame 13 with an opening 14 for loading and unloading clothes, a control panel 15 for controlling the washing machine, and a water supply hose 16. The cover frame 13 is provided with a hinged cover assembly 20 for closing or opening the top opening 14.
The cover assembly 20 comprises a first plate member 21 and a second plate member 22 to facilitate the opening and closing. The second member 22 is hinged to the rear side of the cover frame 13 while the first and the second member 21 and 22 are connected foldably with each other by means of a hinge 23. In addition, a depressed grip 24 is provided at the central outside part of the first member 21.
When loading or unloading clothes into or from the washing basket 12, the first member 21 is raised upwardly by means of the grip 24 so that the first and second members 21 and 22 are folded toward each other about the hinge 23 for opening the cover assembly 20. On the contrary, for closing the cover assembly 20, the first member 21 is pulled downward by means of the grip 24 so that the first and second members 21 and 22 are unfolded and extended about the hinge 23.
Such a conventional washing machine suffers a drawback that the leading end 21A of the first member 21 is forcibly dragged making a great friction with the surfaces of the cover frame 13 so that the frictional parts are greatly damaged together with generating great frictional noises.